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Bonnet was a pupil of Alexandre Guilmant, and like him in that he pursued a double career both as an editor of early music and as a recital organist who excited international admiration. He established a strong reputation in North America and spent his last years there teaching the organ at the Quebec Conservatoire.

Elfes is one of a set of twelve Pièces Nouvelles whose inspiration is both sacred and secular. Earlier in the set there is a piece named after Verlaine's poem 'Clair de lune', and by contrast a 'Prélude au Salve Regina', Elfes is as featherweight and elusive as the mythical creatures it portrays, and demands an equally featherweight virtuosity.

Bonnet was born in Bordeaux where he become organist of the church of St Nicholas at the age of fourteen. He had been taught by his father, but when he came to Paris to study at the Conservatoire his teachers were Tournemire and Guilmant. He won the Grand Prix Guilmant in 1906, the year in which he became organist at St Eustache. He made his American debut in 1917 on the great organ of the College of the City in New York, and spent much of his time in North America playing and teaching, dying in Quebec.

The Etude de Concert is part of his Op 7 set of organ pieces, published in 1910. The set also contains the popular Elfes, as well as a Clair de lune which shines less hauntingly than Debussy’s. An In memoriam Titanic in his next set of pieces might suggest a certain opportunism in his compositions, but this Etude in the style of a gigue is a brilliant whirl of notes designed to captivate a concert audience.